Among the anticancer agents and other such hazardous medications which are used in medical facilities there are a wide variety of products which include therapeutic radioactive medications and the like. Hazardous medications are drugs which are used on a daily basis consistent with therapeutic objectives at medical facilities. However, as levels of mutagens detected in the urine of medical staff who work in environments where these are formulated or administered are high as compared with medical staff who have not been exposed thereto, there is concern that there may be adverse effect on reproductive function.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has published guidelines related to the handling of antineoplastic agents and other hazardous medications by medical staff, and regulations for the handling of hazardous medications have also been established at institutions such as the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). However, during handling of hazardous medications at medical facilities, there are still many situations in which medical staff and patients are subjected to unintentional exposure by those hazardous medications. In such situations, it is frequently the case that the route by which exposure occurs is oral or transdermal exposure to the hazardous medication in liquid or gas form.
More specifically, exposure frequently occurs as a result of drug leakage or dripping at times such as when an infusion bag is being filled with a drug or when a drug is being transferred by suction from a drug container to a syringe during drug dispensing operations. Even more specifically, it is believed that following leakage the drug may come in direct contact with the skin, or that the drug in gasified form, or in particulate form and floating in the air where the drug has dried, may enter the body by inhalation.
In light of the foregoing situation, many medical devices have been developed for delivery of drug(s) between or among containers in which, where hazardous drugs are to be delivered between or among containers, employment of a closed system between or among those containers has been attempted in an effort to prevent medical staff and patients from being subjected to exposure by hazardous drugs (see Patent References Nos. 1 through 6).